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Deutsche Post to launch online groceries service

Germans may no longer have to lug home their groceries because the national postal service will deliver everything in time for supper. Deutsche Post has announced nationwide services for 2015.

A nationwide groceries delivery service are set to be launched by 2015 after pilot services in the town of Cologne had met with growing demand, Germany's national postal service Deutsche Post announced on Wednesday.

The online groceries service would be launched in all major cities in Germany with the company's package delivery unit DHL responsible for the deliveries, DHL Chief Executive Andrej Busch told Wednesday's edition of the Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper.

“In England, for example, about 5 percent of all grocery shopping is being done on the Internet. In Germany, the amount is only 0.2 percent,” Busch is quoted as saying.

In Germany, Deutsche Post/DHL is offering to ship orders between 6 pm and 8 pm on the same day they were placed on the Internet.

Noting that there was a huge potential market for the service in Germany, Busch added that target groups were young families, as well as elderly people who were no longer able to carry their groceries.

However, market research group Nielsen made a survey last year, showing only a limited interest among Germans for online grocery shopping. The high number of retail shops, as well as higher prices for deliveries were mentioned as reasons for their reluctance to embrace the service.